Militarized America: The United States of SWAT

Militarized America: The United States of SWAT

Imagine that you are relaxing comfortably on your sofa watching television.

Answering a knock on your front door you are stunned to find heavily armed officers of a SWAT team barging in screaming orders and waving their assault rifles in your face.

After being handcuffed for two hours while your house is trashed, the team finally leaves after not finding any narcotics in your home. What prompted the search? A local officer noticed that you were visiting a hydroponics store (a science project for your son) while a search of your garbage yielded “wet plant material” which a field test revealed to be marijuana. Actually it turned out that the test confused discarded loose tea bag contents with marijuana. Not too likely a scenario, one would think? Think again. It happened just that way to Bob and Addie Harte of Leawood, Kansas (“The Dark State: Discarded tea leaves, false positive drug tests prompt search warrant of family home” by Melissa Yeager, KSHB 41, Kansas City, March 21, 2014).

If you think that’s a bit overboard, consider what happened to University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly. She had just entered her car after walking across the parking lot carrying a case of bottled water when 7 armed agents flashed badges at her she couldn’t read and demanded she get out. They were in ordinary clothing, not uniforms. She had just attended a “Take Back the Night” event on her campus which was about preventing and surviving sexual assaults. She panicked and fled in her car. After being pulled over by a police car, she found out the men were ATF agents. They thought she was underage buying a case of beer (“Va. agency reviews arrest of student with bottled water”, by Doug Stranglin, USA Today, June 29, 2013).

How about Kenneth Wright of Stockton, Calif.? A SWAT team from, believe it or not, the U.S. Department of Education, battered down his door and handcuffed him for two hours. They were looking for incriminating evidence on his estranged wife whom they suspected of college financial aid fraud. Then there was Dan Allgyer of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was “swatted” for shipping unpasteurized milk. A little closer to home, many of us remember when the SWAT team descended on the Gibson Guitar manufacturer in Nashville looking for illegally imported wood.

These types of bust-your-door-down operations are dramatically increasing. Back in the 1980s there were about 3,000 raids by local police SWAT teams annually. Now, it is around 50,000 a year (“The United States of Swat?”, by John Fund, National Review Online, April 18, 2014). It used to be that agencies such as the Justice Department, Homeland Security, Secret Service, or Bureau of Prisons had SWAT teams.

Now, there are 73 government agencies with around 120,000 armed agents. The EPA has one. The U.S. Postal Service has one. So does the Food and Drug Administration, and even the U.S. Department of Agriculture. I guess if you send a letter to someone telling them about growing an FDA unapproved herb in your garden, your goose is cooked. Even the Railroad Retirement Board has a SWAT team. Unruly old retired railway codgers are a tough bunch to deal with. The Library of Congress has one.

If you think that this proliferation of SWAT teams is bordering on the ludicrous, you are not alone. The Washington Times writer Cheryl Chumley has authored a book entitled “Police State USA: How Orwell’s Nightmare is Becoming Our Reality.” Journalist Radley Balko authored “Rise of the Warrior Cop” in 2013 detailing the increasingly blurry lines between police officer and soldier.

The Rutherford Institute’s president John W. Whitehead gave numerous examples of egregious Department of Homeland Security abuses and is becoming a “beast that is accelerating our nation’s transformation into a police state through its establishment of a standing army, aka national police force.” (“DHS - A WASTEFUL, GROWING, FEAR-MONGERING BEAST” by Chuck Baldwin, June 19, 2014, NewsWithViews.com).

I really don’t want my children or grandchildren to be living in a police state. Many tea party patriots recognize the danger, do you? Things will not change until we “starve the money flow.” That requires participation in the political process. Know who you vote for in the coming midterm elections. I would rather America remain free.

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Stephen Rowland is a Columbia resident with a master of arts degree in Biblical Studies who writes on issues from a conservative, Christian viewpoint. E-mail him at mrstephenrowland@aol.com.

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